kalgoorlie crawl

 

i've never been in love with kalgoorlie... but i have to admit we had a blast when we were there last weekend. on the first saturday of the month they have the st barbara's day parade (she's the patron saint of mining and you can read up on her here... she's actually pretty interesting) and it happened to be while we were there.

 

 

huge pieces of mining equipment, bigger than you can even fathom and other local floats make their way down the street (quite frequently cracking the pavement even though their streets are twice as wide as a normal street - no lies, they were built that way so that the camel trains could turn around all those years ago - you need to see this one day - it's incredible!) while everyone watches, cheers and waits for the people in the parade to throw lollies to them. 

 

 

 

this was the final piece of mining equipment to make it's way down hannan street - it was so huge - i can't even explain it - and this photo certainly doesn't do it justice, but the tyres themselves were about twice my height!!

 

 

maddie had the best time, watching and munching on the lollies, from her daddy's arms after being carried on to the main street on his shoulders. watching them together makes me so so happy. i can hardly describe how full my heart is when i see them.

 

mum and dad got to spend the whole weekend from thursday night through to monday with madeline, which is the longest they've ever had with her... i know they enjoyed every minute of it and i am sure she did too. i only wish we lived closer!

 

after the parade we had fish and chips in a local park with the fam, and as you call know, no day with the goodlets is complete without a picture of laura and i like this! ahh, i am sure we will regret these one day!

 

we discovered this koala in the park! what a freaking cutie!

 

doug and laura also decided to break out their best modelling poses for me, i could barely hold the camera still i was laughing so hard! love them both!

 

 

we also after all these years took the night tour around kalgoorlie - and it was so freaking interesting! i found out all this crazy stuff that i hadn't even imagined, including the fact that this beautiful building has been finished with real gold! the local community raised the money required to have the top done a few years back. it looks incredible!

 

it made me a little sad to be honest, as it will probably be the last time we trek out there, donna and the kids are moving to perth as of january (laura has already spent the last year here boarding with pam while she started high school) while jared continues to work dido (drive in drive out) for a few more years. kalgoorlie has served them well and i know they've loved every minute...

 

 

so long kal! it's been gold!